


Dive Right In

by Phia



Category: Free!
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Fluff and Humor, Free! Eternal Summer, M/M, Mild Language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-01
Updated: 2018-01-01
Packaged: 2019-02-26 14:21:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13237554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phia/pseuds/Phia
Summary: “We’re mates, oh my god.” Rin's eyes are wide and glassy. “We’re ... fuck, we’re ... I’m ...”“This is more of the reaction I expected,” Haru mutters, popping off the cap of the cologne. If it’s a gift, afreegift, he’s sure as hell gonna use it.





	Dive Right In

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> written for [angelkitten-666](http://angelkitten-666.tumblr.com) on tumblr! 
> 
> y'all i've given up on the free! timeline so this is set during eternal summer. also, i know rin is the more "romantic" one but at the end of this day this kid is still. a kid.  
> i hope you enjoy! please leave kudos and a comment if you'd like! constructive criticism or pointing out any mistakes is 100% appreciated too.

The first time Rin notices, it’s when Haru’s arcing out of the pool. He entwines his fingers with Makoto’s, as they always do.

It’s another joint practice at Samezuka, and it’s supposed to be nothing special. Haru’s made the usual cut across the pool, every swimmer staring as he slices through the blue. Sosuke’s eyed up Makoto’s back muscles and subsequently pretended he hasn’t. Nagisa’s sprinted after Ai at least twice, and Rei’s trailed after them, bellowing about safety.

All normal stuff of a Samezuka/Iwatobi reunion, until Rin’s nose crinkles and he feels like he’s welling up. For a second, he wonders if someone’s splashed him in the face with chlorinated water. He’s been standing by the pool by a while, glancing at the Iwatobi team and his own. He scans the pool, wondering if a freshman’s doing more flailing instead of swimming.

But it’s not any chemical — Rin recognizes the scent. He’s known it in lower concentrations, thought about it in the middle of the night. He’s known of it for a long time.

It’s the scent of ocean waves shattering against rock. It’s salt, damp sand, damp earth. It’s a cold breeze and raindrops threaded through sakura petals.

It’s never been so ...

So fucking _strong_. Rin coughs, then chokes on that cough, then spends a moment swallowing and sputtering. This is an Alpha thing. Which means it’s not something that’s going to go away easily.

Rin’s hand flies to his collarbone, fingers scrabbling for the fabric of a hoodie or a shirt to bring up to his nose.

He can’t find anything. And the worst part is that the source of that scent — Haru — is staring straight back at him.

_What is he doing. Does he know ... what the fuck?_

He’s not able to read Haru like Makoto does, but from his wayward gazing, Rin knows he’s not doing this on purpose. So Haru smells like ... _that_ , and without even trying. That can only mean one thing, and Rin would be lying if he said he hasn’t thought about it ... but ... Haru? Obsessed with all-things-water Haru?

What is Rin’s life even going to _be_.

He can’t think of anything to say, to Haru or to the worried Sosuke striding up behind him, or even to himself, so he just sputters out,

“Fuck.”

* * *

 

This is their second joint practice with Samezuka in a month. Nagisa and Rei jumped with excitement at the news, and Gou babbled about her brother, and Makoto took to the task of calming them all down. Haru just thought _pool_ , because nothing else mattered at that point. People and travelling all paled to the Samezuka pool — its cleanliness, its width, its blue, chlorinated depths.

When he starts to run his laps, however, everything goes haywire. The water should feel cool on his skin, but it’s more like a hot clasp. Like two sweat-slicked hands holding one of Haru’s, or an embrace with a furnace that’s just had its flames extinguished.

On top of that, the water smells different. It usually carries the sterile stench of chlorine — Haru loves water in all forms, but it’s much better straight from the source. But this water smells like warmth. Like it’s carved a path through fire and smoothed away stone. When Haru pops his head over the water, reaching out for Makoto, the scent of sakura is potent and oversaturated.

Haru doesn’t like sakura blossoms as much as Rin does.

 _Rin_.

Haru’s grip on Makoto’s hand weakens. Makoto is forced to take most of his weight, and Haru almost staggers back into the pool a couple of times.

When he rights himself onto the tile, Rin is standing at the head of his own lane. He has a weird glazed look in his eyes, and Haru can see that the Alpha’s nostrils are flaring.

“Are you okay, Haru?” Makoto asks, all high-pitched and unsteady. But he’s looking at Rin, one Alpha analyzing another. It can’t escape Makoto’s notice that Rin’s jaw is clenched and his brow is furrowed. The harsh lines of his face are all Alpha.

Haru can’t even make fun of Rin’s secondary gender rearing its head. As he cups his hand over his nose, Rin does the same; it’s like staring into a mirror. Pool water trickles down their figures and puddles at their bare feet.

Rin’s little kohai is running up to them, his wet feet squelching on the floor.

“Senpai...” Nitori’s words trail off. The second-year stares up at Rin with a furrowed brow.

Rin’s eyelashes are long, like ironed ribbons, like clouds stretched across the pane of the sky.

“Did something happen?” His voice is nasally, and he doesn’t take his eyes off of Haru.

“No,” Nitori murmurs, shifting on his feet.

Whatever else Nitori might be saying fades into the background. It’s like the volume has been turned down on him and everything else in the room. Haru can only see Rin and the pool at his side. Both reek of the same scent. Both ... Haru wants to dive in, headfirst. Carve his way through and splay his limbs. Take up space in everything that has taken space in him.

A flurry of blond makes its way towards Haru, its owner tugging at his elbow. “Haru! Yours’ and Rin’s scents — you guys are mates!”

Rin blinks. He draws back a little, but then sways forward again.

 _Mates_. Haru knows the word, has hurried it in his grandmother’s quiet voice before she passed. But he hasn’t thought about it since someone hopped on a plane to Australia.

“Haruka-senpai, this is the typical reaction of an Alpha-Omega pairing when the two reach optimal breeding cycles. However, due to biological—”

“We’d know, right?” Nagisa teases, jabbing Rei in the ribs with his elbow. Haru would cringe if he felt like he could move his facial muscles — if he could close his mouth and stop his eyes from watering.

“Nagisa-kun!” Rei has turned a shade of red that could rival Rin’s hair. “Don’t say things like that!”

“But Rei-chan, you know it’s true!” Nagisa sings.

Rin keeps his gaze on Haru, but barks, “Can you guys just shut the fuck up? For one second?”

They fall silent in an instant. Nothing deters them, however, as they glance between Rin and Haru like they’re observing a tennis match.

“You should watch your language,” Haru says, his own voice sounding pinched. Rin’s eyes narrow above his hand.

When Makoto tugs Haru away, half of him is grateful. The other half of him is back at the pool, nose pressed to the base of Rin’s neck. Eyes closed as sakura blooms between their bodies, as water warms beneath the tile and the foundation and the earth. Hands in those that fold over his. The other half of him is where he knows he should be.

* * *

Two weeks fly by, and the next joint practice is around the corner. Rin doesn’t think about it until he’s looking over his calendar, a captaincy gift from Nitori. The characters are written in black ink; Rin would rather avoid the 12th altogether.

That night, he dines with Sosuke in the Samezuka canteen. Sosuke sips at his water whenever he feels like he can’t hide his smile. Rin can’t call him out — what the hell would that even _do_?

“Jeez, Sosuke. It was so embarrassing.” Rin rakes the fingers of his left hand through his hair. He sighs, glancing at his burger but not picking it up.

“Yeah,” Sosuke says, tone even as he chews through a mouthful of lettuce. “Imagine _watching_ it.”

Rin scowls at his best friend, who only shrugs back at him.

“I’ve gotta do _something_ ,” Rin hisses, one fist clenching on the laminate tabletop. “I’m the captain. This cannot go on. It’s so ... unprofessional.”

Sosuke’s eyes are calm and reflect nothing, but Rin is used to that type of gaze. “It’s your fault.”

“It’s not!”

“And for _Nanase_ , too.”

Rin cocks his head, his sharp teeth flashing. “What’s wrong with Haru?”

Sosuke looks at him for a second, then presses his lips together in a way that Rin knows is his way of hiding laughter.

Rin thinks back to his reaction, and flushes with embarrassment even as he says, “I hate you.”

Sosuke decides to laugh this time. It’s a nice, low sound, but Rin thinks it’s inappropriate for the moment.

He leans back in his chair and crosses his arms over his chest. Who cares if his burger is growing cold. “Supportive friend, my fucking _ass_.”

* * *

Haru stands in his bathroom. Outside, the blue of the sky is fading into black. Makoto’s just left and he’s not expecting anymore visitors.

He peels off his jammers and examines himself in the mirror. He never sees the need to — he’s so used to finding his reflection in water. Now, he sees the black hair and blue eyes and trim build of an Omega. If he squints, he the swimmer and the friend and vice-captain. He sees the person who has the power to make Rin’s eyes water: from loss, from happiness, from his own scent.

He strides to his bathtub and turns the faucet on, his fingers a cage around the wheel.

When it comes to water, there are no variables. It hovers over the space it wants to fill, and then it fills the space until it evaporates. When people expect different things from it — when people expect it to defy its own nature — nothing good ever comes out of it. A plunge into choppy ocean waves will send you sprawling back onto the shore. Hold ice in the palm of your hand and it will melt into its natural state. Haru has learned this lesson, said it to others, sent it, silently, towards the ceiling.

He stops when the tub is three-quarters full, then steps into the water and lies down. The tile is cold against his nape, and he readjusts until he’s under the sheet of water, with just his head above the surface.

He prefers not to think when he’s in the tub, but at the end of a long day, it’s inevitable. There was the walk to school, which was uneventful. Class, which followed the same trend even though he’d been caught drawing waves on his desk with his eraser. Then lunch, class, and swimming, the latter as enjoyable as always.

At practice Nagisa had been on and on about this movie he’d caught with Rei. Gou told him Rin saw the movie with Sosuke, and they both referred to it as “garbage.” Nagisa threatened to call Rin right _then_ and get a full, detailed review.

And that brings it back to Rin ... because it always goes back to Rin, when it’s mid-evening and he’s underwater and thinking.

Rin was unsettled last practice. But it’s not right to act as if Haru wasn’t either. Sweat spilled over their skin. Their hands shook. Their feet did not move.

As Haru shoved on his clothes in the locker room, he lost the ability to pick up Rin’s scent. But when the Iwatobi team emerged into the pool area, the perfume of the sakura had turned sickly sweet, fraught with worry.

Haru leaves the tub like he’s been yanked by a string. It’s only a few steps until he reaches the mirror and the medicine cabinet. After pushing the pane of glass to the side, he finds a pink bottle.

He’s half-seated in the tub, on his haunches before he’s snapped open the bottle and squeezed its contents into the water. The air fills with the scent of sakura. It’s synthetic; it’s far from the actual blossom. Far from what it must smell like at the nape of Rin’s neck, where the scent glands lie underneath the skin.

But Haru sets the bottle on the ledge of his bathtub, sinks under the water, and allows himself to pretend.

* * *

Rin turns his cellphone over and over in his hands. Over and over. Over and over. Across the bedroom, Sosuke has one hand poised over the switch.

“You want the lights off?”

“Yeah,” Rin says, and the light blinks off, plunging the room into the darkness. Rin flops down onto his mattress and sighs.

As Sosuke crawls up the ladder, Rin types, _can we meet Saturday evening?_

Haru’s reply takes a couple of minutes. _About what?_

Rin’s gaze narrows. Of course, his mate is _this_ one.

_i have a gift for you._

Rin can’t help but notice the romance in it. They’ve found out they’re mates, and in front of a pool, too. Not many mated pairs get to say that they’ve had their discovery at their favorite place in the world. But neither he or Haru have made a move, and it’s been a couple of weeks since the whole weird scent thing. The thought of doing something about it ... it’s tantalizing, yet scary.

He’s an Alpha. How do you take care of someone who doesn’t need to be taken care of?

Without an Alpha presence in his life, Ai is a mess — the clutter on his desk and in his mind build until an Alpha gives him a nudge in the right direction. Without Rei, Nagisa was even more hyperactive (which doesn’t seem possible. But it is.)

Haru’s lived on his own for years, with only the companionship of Makoto to guide him. But it’s _Makoto_ , who possesses Alpha strength, but keeps that strength hidden behind lock and key.

Haru’s not even like an _Alpha_. He isn’t confident like Rin, or forceful like Sosuke. He’d almost be a beta, if it weren’t for his scent — one of water consuming the earth.

Rin’s phone buzzes once in his hands.

 _Okay_ , Haru’s written. _Where are we meeting?_

* * *

Haru’s stayed up many a night thinking about it, and now he’s facing it again. It feels like his nostrils are burning, but at least he doesn’t have to swim through the smell. And at least it doesn’t seem like he’ll be at this café for a long time. Because from the look on his face, Rin has an agenda for this meeting.

Rin seems to have found it — he stops rummaging through his backpack and pulls out a small package. It’s in the shape of a cylinder, messily concealed with newspaper and tape. Rin sends it rolling across the tabletop. Haru catches it in his right hand.

“Happy birthday,” Rin says. Haru’s own scent must be affected as well because Rin’s eyes aren’t as watery as they were before.

Haru picks up the gift, peeling the paper away like he’s unearthing an ancient relic.

“It’s not my birthday,” he says, fingertips brushing over the smooth glass of the bottle.

“I know it’s not,” Rin huffs. “Just ... just open it.”

Haru discards every bit of paper, sending it to flutter down on the tabletop. He looks through his eyelashes at Rin, raising an eyebrow.

“Perfume,” he drawls.

Rin sighs, rolling his eyes into the back of his head. “It’s _cologne_ , you idiot.”

“Cologne.”

“Stop ... stop with the whole one word thing!”

Haru wraps his fingers around the body of the bottle, turning it in the golden mood lighting of the coffeeshop. This couldn’t have been cheap, and why is Rin gifting him anyway?

He blinks. “Do you ... do you find something wrong with my scent?”

“Eh?” Rin’s eyes are wide.

“What’s wrong with the way I smell? Because you seemed to like it, so I don’t understand.”

Alphas and Omegas can’t pick up their own scents — there’s no biological purpose, and it would just get in the way. But Haru’s always known that he smells like water, thanks to Makoto and all of his compliments. So there’s no way that Haru’s scent is unpleasant.

“ _What_ ... I mean, I didn’t say I didn't like it.”

Haru stares at him.

“I — what the _fuck_ , don’t look at me like that, okay? I just ... I can’t read that. I have no idea what you’re really saying.”

Haru drums his fingers on the side of the bottle.

“It’s just kind of distracting. Your scent,” Rin rushes. “I mean ... since. We’re mates.”

In one fluid gesture, Rin’s hands fly to his face, one palm covering each burning cheek.

“We’re _mates_ , oh my god.” His eyes are wide and glassy. “We’re ... fuck, we’re ... I’m ...”

“This is more of the reaction I expected,” Haru mutters, popping off the cap of the cologne. If it’s a gift, a _free_ gift, he’s sure as hell gonna use it.

Rin seems to be rocking back and forth, the leather of the booth squeaking with the motion. “Are you serious.”

Haru nods. “I was waiting for more tears, though.” He brings the bottle up to his face and sniffs at the spout. “I mean, your eyes did look a little watery...”

“Oh my god, Haru, you’re so annoying...” Rin groans. “You’re not surprised by this? At all?”

Haru sets the cologne between them. With its clear bottle and metallic accents, it stands as an attractive centerpiece.

“I always knew,” he says, voice as clear as water.

Rin darts eyes to him. His lips tremble as he asks, “Did you?”

Haru glances at the table. For once, he feels like it’s impossible to look at Rin. “Yeah. There was always something, and I never knew what it was, and I didn’t think about it for a long time.”

Rin’s hands fall onto the table. Haru’s never gotten the chance to look at them up close: his veins are prominent, his fingers long and his nails short.

“And now we know,” Rin whispers. And Haru’s sure he hasn’t meant to do that. It’s soft and almost nothing: an exhale, words existing without any sound.

Rin’s an Alpha, but It’s not an order. It’s not a suggestion. It’s a statement without anything else.

Alpha, Omega, Rin, Haru. Does it matter? And who’s supposed to do something first?

When their hands brush, the room floods with the scent of petals treading freshwater.

 

**Author's Note:**

> (pasted at the end to avoid spoilers)
> 
> the prompt was:
> 
> 1) A/B/O with Haru and an Omega and Rin as an Alpha where Rin and Haru drive eachother crazy with their scents but don’t want to admit it and everyone else knows and when Rin walks into a room Haru is literally paralysed and has dreams about him but doesn’t wanna admit it to anyone (maybe he does to Rin at the end though)  
> (please Rin saying fuck alot that is literally my one request it’s so cute)
> 
> i didn't follow everything but uh, yeah!!
> 
> my tumblr: [fiveyen](http://fiveyen.tumblr.com)


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